After Mark Cavendish crashed out of the Tour de France on Saturday with a broken collarbone, his team manager Alexander Vinokourov has told French newspaper L’Équipe that Astana Qazaqstan would like the Briton to postpone his retirement for a year and race on in 2024.
Cavendish, 38, signed for Astana Qazaqstan at the start of this season following months of speculation over where he would race in 2023, and won the final stage of this year’s Giro d’Italia in Rome.
Vinokourov told the newspaper that it was up to Cavendish to make a decision about fighting on for a 35th Tour de France stage victory in 2024, and that as yet the idea had not been suggested to him directly, but that the team were “ready to offer him” this possibility.
A day after finishing second in a sprint in Bordeaux, his best placing in this year’s race, Cavendish fell some 60 kilometres from the finish on stage 8, and abandoned with a broken right collarbone.
On Sunday morning Astana Qazaqstan posted a Tweet showing Cavendish, after spending the night in hospital, back at the team hotel saying goodbye one by one to his teammates prior to flying home.
L’Équipe reported that “even if the idea that Cavendish could put off his retirement” – announced for the end of this season during the Giro d’Italia – “was not yet brought up, it’s already in the air.”
“Yes, we’d like Mark to continue in 2024 and race his 15th Tour de France to win that 35th stage,” Vinokourov said. “I myself broke my femur in 2011 in the Tour, and that should have been my last year. But I didn’t want to end my career like that.”
“I kept going and I worked hard to the point where I could win at the Olympic Games in London the following year. Mark has the same mentality, the same willpower to achieve his final goal. We’re ready to offer him that chance. But it’s up to him to decide.”
Last evening after returning from the hospital @MarkCavendish visited the team’s hotel to say goodbye to his teammates. Today he’ll fly home. A very fast recovery, good luck, thank you for the great moments and see you soon, Mark!#TDF2023 #AstanaQazaqstanTeam pic.twitter.com/GpP9iC0KNJJuly 9, 2023
